Daily Digest - August 26: Unemployment Here or There?

Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal thinks that relocating the long-term unemployed to areas with lower unemployment will result in their being unemployed in a new place. It would be better to concentrate on improving the economy as a whole.

Michael Hiltzik speaks to Roosevelt Institute Fellow Susan Crawford about how much the lack of competition is harming Americans' access to high speed Internet. She suggests that genuine oversight is needed, by treating Internet access as a utility rather than a luxury product.

Nancy Folbre suggests that part-time work needs to include jobs of the same quality as full-time work. Part-time jobs that pay the same hourly wage and offer pro-rated benefits could increase gender equity in our economy.

Matthew O'Brien examines data from the Urban Institute comparing the long-term unemployed, newly unemployed, and discouraged workers. The long-term unemployed are generally older, and are primarily out of work due to lay-offs.

This Week in Poverty: '90 Percent of Workers Aren’t Getting Bupkis' (The Nation)

Greg Kauffman looks at a report from the Economic Policy Institute, which finds that wage stagnation has the same causes from minimum wage workers all the way up. An economy that is geared toward corporate profits isn't going to lift people out of poverty.

Stacy Mitchell says that Wal-Mart's new plan to increase their purchases of U.S.-made goods is a hollow marketing campaign. Most of that increase will be in their growing takeover of the grocery industry, and won't create new jobs.

Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal thinks that the new rankings will be helpful if they can reduce the costs of private schools, expose administrative bloat, and bring accountability to for-profit schools. Otherwise, they could just be a waste.